Islamic Blog dealing with religious and worldly issues faced by the Muslims.

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Thursday, 18 February 2016

Individual Reformation vs Collective Reformation

We have seen in the
article http://secondriseofislam.blogspot.com/2011/04/aqamat-e-deen.html
andhttp://secondriseofislam.blogspot.com/2015/12/muslim-ummah-and-methodology-of-rising.html
that addressee of every responsibility assigned in the Quran, except suchresponsibilities which are exclusively
assigned to our Nabi (s.a.w.w), has been mentioned in plural form; it means
that every responsibility assigned in the Quran is individual as well as
collective in its nature. In fact, boththese responsibilities reinforce each
other; the execution of individual responsibilities lead us to execute
collective responsibilities, and execution of collective responsibilities make
us execute individual responsibilities. The first phase of every collective
deed is the individual deed; when the individual deeds are institutionalized,
collective phase/deed is completed. Similarly when the collective deeds are
institutionalized, they make the individuals to execute their individual deeds.
The
difference between individual and collective deed is that individual deed is
compensated individually whereas a collective deed is compensated collectively. In collective deed, contribution of every individual is not essentially required; similarly reward and penalty of collective deed is not confined to individuals which contribute to collective deed.

Though
individual deeds and collective deeds reinforce each other, they can be
mutually exclusively performed. Though both kinds of deeds have to be performed,
individual deeds can be performed without performing collective deeds;
similarly, collective deeds can be performed without making every individual
perform his/her individual deeds.Actually
implications of these two types of deeds are entirely different; individual
deeds are to be compensated in the world Hereafter; but collective deeds are to
be compensated in this world only. The rise and fall of nations is based on
collective deeds of nations; it is not based on individual deeds (for
details pls. see http://secondriseofislam.blogspot.com/2015/12/muslim-ummah-and-methodology-of-rising.html).

We can see western
civilization is dominating Muslims’ civilization at present, though westerners
seem to be no better than us in terms of individual morality. Actually western
civilization is dominating Muslims’ civilization due to their social systems
which are more Islamic in their color and nature than the social systems
adopted by the Muslims; the western nations are dominating Muslim nations due
to their collective deeds. As for as Muslims are concerned, they have adopted
the same political and economic systems which have been adopted by the western
nations- in terms of political and economic systems, Muslims are as bad as are
western nations; but the social systems adopted by Muslims are worse than those
adopted by the western nations which have adopted such social systems which are
closer to Islam than those adopted by the Muslims. The social systems adopted
by the western nations ensure there should be justice through judicial system;
there should be protection of human rights and human freedoms- e.g. consumers’
rights’ children’s rights, sellers’ rights, old people’s rights, un-employed
peoples’s rights, minimum livelihood rights, educational rights, health care
rights, freedom of speech etc. The Muslims would start rising when the
collective systems adopted by them would be closer to Islam than the collective
systems adopted by the western nations.

In order to rise in
the comity of nations, Muslims have to diagnosecorrectly the reasons of their downfall. According to one view, the
reason of Muslims’ downfall is moral decline at individual level; accordingly
the remedy which is suggested is there should be a widespread movement aiming
at individual reformation so that such movement may morally reform, if not all
people, at least majority of people. As we have discussed above, this diagnosis
and suggested remedy are not correct because rise and fall of a nation is based
on its collective deeds; it is not based on individual deeds.

Both views mentioned
above are extremist views. To say that an Islamic state and society cannot be
established without reforming moral character of majority of the people is as
much extremist in its nature as is saying that Islamic state and society may be
established, in all cases, through armed struggle. In fact both these views
take us away from the goal of establishment of a true Islamic society and
state.

A true Islamic state
and society may be established by installing Islamic institutions/systems in
the society. For the purpose, there is no need to train majority of the people;
institution building is a specialized job. So only required number of persons
are needed to be trained. Simultaneously social cum political agitation may be
launched so that way may be paved for installing Islamic institutions, once the
required number of expert persons have become available. It may be
appreciatedpeoples’ support is required
to launch successful social cum political agitation but it is not necessary to
participate in the political process for the purpose. People’s support can be obtained peacefully by convincing the people
through preaching, education, training, organization and political agitation.
It is not necessary to convince the whole society for the purpose; but the required
number of people need to
be convinced. Every Muslim society may start the process of installation of
Islamic systems gradually in their respective society. If people’s support
enables the Muslims in any Muslim society to obtain political power, the
process of Islamization of Muslim society may be faster. But an attempt to grab
political power without required number of people’s support would lead to such internal
conflicts which would ultimately weaken the Muslims society against the non-Muslims;
therefore such kind of attempt is not permissible.

It may also be
appreciated that mustering peoples’ support is something different from
reforming peoples’ moral characters. In the process of gathering peoples’
support, people are required to be convinced to support a cause which suits
people’s own interests; this process is different from the process of moral
purgation and purification of people. The author is not opposing the idea of
individual reformation of people; there is no second opinion that individual
reformation facilitates collective reformation, as has been mentioned above.
The author is opposing the view that individual reformation-aiming at moral purgation of majority people- is essential for
collective reformation. Quran sys:

“That is because Allah
would not change a favor which He had bestowed upon a nation until they change what is within them. And
indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing” (al-anfal-53).

“…Indeed,
Allah will not change the condition of a nation until they change
what is within them (their deeds). And when Allah intends for a people ill,
there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron”
(al-ra,d-11) .

In both these above
mentioned verses, Allah is stating about conditions of a nation; in other words
Allah is stating about collective conditions of people; not individual
conditions of people.

According to one
hadith, moral character of the people is reflected in the moral character of
their ruler. Of course, it is so; but a bad ruler may be forced to undertake
good collective deeds without reforming his individual moral character.Secondly this hadith may also be interpreted
as mentioning about collective character of people, instead of individual
character of people.

We may conclude that
collective reformation of a nation is not necessarily based on individual
reformation of people. Both these processes, though reinforce each other, can
be undertaken exclusively of each other. The rise and fall of a nation is based
on collective conditions/ deeds of a nation; in order to rise in the comity of
nations, Muslims have to undertake collective reformation. As collective
reformation is reflected through collective systems, Muslims need to install
Islamic institutions in their respective societies, instead of pursuing
individual’s moral reformation as a first stage. Most importantly, Muslims societies have to strengthen mutual unity so that what Islamization they would have achieved in their respective societies may be protected from foreign adverse interference (for details pls. see http://secondriseofislam.blogspot.com/2014/04/muslim-millat-and-pakistans-role-in.html).